


sea salt of the wheat fields

by Angyie



Series: riven world, put back together [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem 外伝 | Fire Emblem Gaiden
Genre: F/M, I swear I'm going somewhere with this, Post-Game(s), the roadtrip no one wanted, they just travel together after zeke gets back and they're cute and mushy and i love them very much
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 04:52:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17953946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angyie/pseuds/Angyie
Summary: The war has not been kind on Rigel, and Tatiana sets out on a pilgrimage throughout the ruins of Valentia to soothe her people’s pain. Lost between two worlds, Zeke can only follow his shining sun, and perhaps let her heal his soul and heart alongside their home.Or, Tatiana and Zeke travel around a ruined Valentia in a twisted definition of what is a honeymoon.part 1 of an on-going series regarding echoes' post-game.





	sea salt of the wheat fields

**Author's Note:**

> I was too late for the Tatizeke zine applications, so this is me coping.
> 
> No but more seriously, I am just. In love with Tatiana and Zeke and I could cry thinking about them, they're so so so in love and radiant and wow I can't believe Tatizeke invented true love?
> 
> This will be part of an on-going series I'd like to build regarding the post-game of echoes. I already know what part 2 is going to be, it's just a matter of cleaning up my wips at this point lmao.
> 
> I am not an English native speaker, nevertheless I hope you enjoy!

_ “Let me show you a world without war.” _

 

.

 

There is nothing and everything to his story, a whole void of something that is gone, that he can only fill with the waves that took it all and brought him here.

The ocean is near everything in Rigel. It surrounds the land, showers it with sea salt in every breeze, all the way to the snowy mountains of the north. It splits the land in two, three, four parts, even, and Ezekiel holds a special kind of distaste for the ocean.

As time passed under the Rigelians and their emperor’s kind care, he would still stare at the endless pool of water and curse its existence.

Yet all it would take was a gentle hand that took his, tugging him away from the sand, and Tatiana would be here, tearing him away from the cold water like the very first time.

“Let’s go back,” she’d say. Back home in her little village perched on a cliff over the ocean, back to the home they had made together.

But the sea keeps a hard grip on him. So he goes back, back to the land he hails from. When he takes a boat back to the one that fostered him, he still hates the ocean for all the pain it brought. But  _ she _ , she smiles as if his departure hadn’t hurt, takes his hand and says:  _ “Let me show you a world without war” _ .

 

.

 

It goes more like this:

Tatiana’s priory is the sole landmark in her village, and perhaps the only thing that holds it and the entire region around it together. There is nothing but forests and fields, some of them forever barren, but the priory is where every traveler stops by.

The villagers gift Ezekiel - such is the name that the emperor gives him - with a home, once they realize the newly made general is here to stay and protect the land. It’s nothing much, an abandoned wooden house on the outskirts of the village, but he gratefully takes it and chases away the spiders in the corners of the ceiling. In his spare time, he does patch it up a bit, but even through memory loss he can feel that his hands are unused to such labour. He wonders if he’d be more in his natural element in the royal court by his emperor’s side, a place that he has politely refused.

The house feels cold, dark, lifeless, unwelcoming, until Tatiana shows up.

She goes back and forth between him and the priory. Her selflessness wouldn’t allow her to leave the people who had raised her that easily, and the priory gives a roof to a lot of orphaned children who are very fond of her. Still, in the first weeks, she makes it her top priority to make sure he’s comfortable among them, especially when she realizes he is a disaster with basic chores.

“Hopeless, all of you army men,” she huffs sometimes, as she shows him how to properly cook and cut vegetables without losing a finger in the process.

“I might have been more used to battle than housework in my previous life, I’m afraid,” Ezekiel tries to defend himself.

Tatiana then straightens her back, a haughty look on her face. “Well, if you would excuse this kind maiden for having been born amongst the poor and good-for-nothing,” she says, trying to mimic his accent, but it sounds more like she has forgotten to breathe and a piece of the leek she’s cutting is stuck in her throat.

She coughs and laughs in embarrassment, and Zeke thinks he might be a bit in love.

The house does feel warmer when she’s here and she fills it with laughter and smiles. He’s surprised to realize some of them are his.

As time passes and the threat of a war with Zofia - a country he knows no more than this one, but Zofia didn’t give him a name, a father, and something to protect - grows stronger over the years, he finds out he is hopelessly in love with Tatiana.

 

.

 

It goes a bit like this:

At the capital, he ignores the whispers behind his back, about the strange and stoic man with an unfamiliar accent who gained the emperor’s favor so quickly, yet still leaves to supervise the military in a distant part of the country. A waste, some say, a good riddance, the others say. He ignores it all and goes back to a certain village, not far from a military base, and makes himself at home.

Then, Tatiana shows up, with a basket of fruits to share with him. She is very fond of peaches (“a Zofian luxury,” she says) and raspberries. Despite that, she always brings him all different kinds of goods, because she was horrified when they realized Zeke had no idea what he liked and disliked. It’s a sweet pastime of theirs, a blind test of different flavors from all over the world. She dodges questions about her expenses with expertise, so Zeke gives up on insisting to pay for it when he certainly has a much better quality of life thanks to the emperor’s protection.

(He finds out quickly that Tatiana might be small, but there is more courage and passion in the tips of her fingers than in most of his soldiers.)

He likes the pears from Archanea the most. She laughs at his wince upon tasting a particularly bitter kind of lemon.

She doesn’t come the third day of the week - that’s a special day for the priory who set up a stand in the marketplace to sell the pastries and various objects the clerics and children make. The first few months, he stays at home, too busy mourning his lack of memories, but when the first year mark hits, he enjoys taking a stroll through the village, greeting the people he has come to know, trying to look inconspicuous when checking out the other stalls.

Under teasing and knowing smiles from the rest of the village, Tatiana gently smacks him on the arm when he tries to hide and forces him to buy gingerbread biscuits he knows they will surely eat together the next afternoon.

Until the sun sets, she babbles on and on about everything for hours around a cup of tea in his house. Zeke likes to listen because he doesn’t know much about this world anyway, and he is fairly sure any description of it wouldn’t make it as fascinating if it wasn’t in her voice.

“Son, you might wanna make a move someday before you two get too old,” the fisherman tells him one day, catching him off-guard. He was absolutely not staring at her through the dead fish hanging from the stall.

“I’m, er, I’m sorry?”

The old man sighs. “You can’t say I didn’t try, Daisy,” he yells at the middle aged-woman selling embroidered objects behind Zeke. The woman laughs; Zeke can feel himself blush.

“That’s-- That’s preposterous,” he stutters, with no good defense for himself.

The man raises an eyebrow and gives him a sarcastic look over the myriad of dead fish. Zeke doesn’t really feel like this is the most appropriate place to talk about the fine arts of courting a lady.

Then again, he finds that villagers don’t care much for noble etiquette.

“Come on, it’s been a year since you’ve joined us. I know you’re away most of the year, serving the emperor or whatever, but you’re all that sweet girl talks about when you’re not here, and we’ve all seen how you look at her.”

“The whole village watches her visiting you almost every day,” someone adds, an old lady Zeke has helped a few times with numerous chores that needed strength and who clearly liked gossip.

“Miss Tatiana gets all red when we talk about you at the priory,” a child suddenly shouts. Zeke has to remind himself he has had nothing against children so far in his life.

It’s like the whole village has stopped around him, or at least he knows these now familiar faces enough to see the teasing and impatient looks.

Zeke wonders why he rejected Emperor Rudolf’s offer to live at the imperial palace.

“Zeke?” A voice asks, and the villagers are surprisingly adept at looking extremely busy in a matter of seconds. Tatiana approaches him, one of the orphans of the priory clinging to her.

“Good afternoon, Zeke!” She says, more enthusiastically when she is closer.

(“She calls him  _ ‘Zeke’, _ ” someone whispers in a hysterical tone. Everyone else calls him ‘General Ezekiel’ out of a mix of fear and respect, ‘son’ for the old ones who used to wield a lance in their younger days.)

“How are you today?”

“I’m, er, I’m, doing quite well, Tatiana. How are you faring?”

“The children are very enthusiastic today, but it’s been fun.”

Zeke nods and offers a polite smile. Silence. Somebody snorts, and it’s followed by a hiss of pain - someone else probably smashed their toes, Zeke thinks.

“I was wondering if I could visit later this afternoon? I fear I’ve left a few of my belongings at your home last time I was there,” Tatiana says with a sorry face.

(“Leaving stuff at his house? That’s like, more than third bas--”)

Zeke coughs loudly. “Of course, you are free to stop by anytime you desire.”

Tatiana smiles in gratitude. Her dress is simple today, a mix of white and blue, a personal touch of broidery on the classic cleric attire, and her curls are a bright, beautiful mess that frame her delicate face. She has decided to discard her usual gloves, as the summer heat can hit pretty hard even in Rigel, and Zeke wants nothing more than to hold her hand and feel her warmth.

“You have my gratitude. I’ll see you later then,” she says, and leaves, gently tugging the child back to the other ones.

Zeke watches her leave with a fond smile, thinks about how her seafoam hair fall around her arms like a dazzling waterfall, and that’s when he realizes he is hopelessly, unconditionally, inevitably in love.

“Oh, he’s got it bad,” the head of the village says. He tries to remember his manners enough to not glare.

.

 

Inevitably, the war comes.

Ezekiel leaves for the capital to fulfill his duty, and comes back months later to an empty house.

“I’ll take good care of it, maybe dust a few things, until you come back,” she had said while patting his horse’s head.

When he pushes the door open, the orange rays of the late afternoon sun they like to bathe in are no longer here. The room is dark, and he barely recognizes the hearth he built from almost scratch. Nothing has changed, really, but it’s a few details here and there that just scream to him that everything is wrong.

On the table, he can spot a closed book, one filled with maps of the world and many many tales of people who have explored every known corner of it. They had started to read it together, sitting side by side in a way that makes his heart flutter and his hands shake. Tatiana would excitedly point at the places she’s heard of, asking with profound curiosity about those she hasn’t.

With reverence, she would ask with a wistful voice, “Perhaps this one is your home?”

“I cannot say for sure,” he would apologize everytime.

Judging by the dust on the wood, it hasn’t been touched in weeks.

Near his bed, on the night table, the thick bouquet of peonies she had once brought back - a gift from the children of the priory, she had said, stuttering and pushing it into his hands before quickly changing subjects - has died. The only things left are naked branches and white petals turned greyish covering the floor.

“She’s gone,” a voice says behind him and Zeke whirls back. One of the children of the village, a frail looking one that always clings to Tatiana’s robes, stands there with an apologetic look. “Nuibaba took her.”

Their home is still cold, but it’s as if it went up in flames around him.

 

.

 

It finally goes like this:

The house stays empty for two years. One during which they fight against the gods, another one during which he finally remembers Archanea.

He had made a promise to come back though.

Tatiana looks tired and too thin for his taste when he finally gets to their village. But she smiles, holds out her hand, and says, “Welcome home.”

No one in the village has touched his house, probably out of respect for his actions during the war in order to protect them, and for Tatiana as well. Although, he can see she hasn’t touched anything either, because everything looks the same as when the war with Zofia had started.

It is hard to find sleep when the mattress of his bed is hard on his back, when it feels like his house is filled with ghosts, and he spends his days training and twirling his lance for enemies that are no more. There isn’t much else he knows to do with his hands.

It’s not exactly the same now, but they try to restore their daily routine. It’s not easy. Tatiana has continued her life alone for a year or so now, and she doesn’t talk much about it, and Zeke has been fighting two separate wars for two consecutive years, regaining his identity in the process. Coming back to peaceful life in a remote village with no story is far more difficult than anticipated when you are used to battlefields, royal courts and sacrifices.

“So,” Tatiana clears her throat and says during their tea time. “Archanea. How is it?”

Ezekiel sits back on his chair, thinks for a moment. “Breathtaking.”

Tatiana tilts her head to the side, and Zeke knows she’s going to say he’s too stiff and intense, or something like that, so he goes on: “Very different from here. The grass and trees are a more vibrant shade of green, but the mountains aren’t as high and mighty as Rigel’s. The people are not so different, I suppose. Perhaps they sound more like me,” he chuckles, well aware of his slight accent.

“It… Felt very much like I was back where I belonged,” he says, and their eyes cross, holding the same kind of pain and misery.

“But it’s not quite what it used to be either now,” she whispers.

He nods. They don’t say anything else, but Tatiana lets out a small sigh. She is fiddling with her fingers, looking down at her knees.

“I do not think I can go back there. It has changed far too much and holds too many painful memories for me to bear, and… I have changed too.”

Ezekiel leans forward. He wants to hold her in his arms, bury his face against her neck, let her hair tickle his skin, but he fears he would be hurting her even more. Yet, he says:

“If you would have me… I would like to stay with you now.” The ‘forever’ floats in the air, unsaid.

Tatiana’s only reaction is to bite her lower lip. Zeke is starting to think he has broken too many things between them.

But then, she finally gets up, slamming her palms on the table and startling Zeke.

“Do you trust me?” She says, looking right at him in the eyes with a renewed flame, not dangerous but still fierce and comforting. It’s one that reminds him of why he fell in love in the first place.

“O-Of course,” he stutters. “My life is in your hands. It has always been, from the day we met.”

“Oh, shut up, will you? You’re going to make me blush,” Tatiana says, although her cheeks are already red. Still, she is pouting and smiling like she used to before the war, and Zeke finds himself hoping.

“Alright,” Tatiana says, kicking her chair out of the way to stand right before him. She enthusiastically grabs his hands. “You and I are leaving this place.”

“Are we?” Zeke says with surprise.

Tatiana nods, but quickly becomes more serious. As she talks, Ezekiel finally gets the heartache he could feel in her ever since he came back.

“The truth is… I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. The land is still trying to recover from Duma and Mila’s wrath, and all the stories I hear from the travelers stopping by the priory are about the suffering of the people, and… I can’t just stay here and do nothing. It is my duty. I have to help.”

“Of course you do,” Zeke chuckles. “I would expect nothing less from my shining sun.”

“Shush,” she laughs while gently smacking his arm. “And I think… I think you need it. We can’t just stay here, at least not for now. Perhaps we’ll come back one day, but despite what you say, I can feel your heart wavering between two places, and you aren’t truly here with me.”

Zeke goes to apologize, because, perceptive as always, she knows his feelings better than him, but she is faster: “It’s okay, I don’t blame you. I just want you to be happy, and I know you don’t want to hurt me. So you have to let me help you. There’s so much more I have to show you about the world that you don’t know.”

It hurts to see her plead this way, even more so knowing he is the one responsible for it.

He thinks of all of his memories coming back in flashes. Of blood pouring down on the earth and on his hands, of the heavy weight of his lance, of the snarls of the noble houses trying to tear him apart. Of violence of the words and actions he has witnessed his entire life.

He thinks of the children of the village sticking to his side, jumping a few at a time at one of his arms to judge how strong he was to lift all of them. Of the way the lonely old lady living near the fountain looks at him with a mournful look and calls him son, of the one time the fisherman refused to let him pay for his goods in order to thank him for making Tatiana a bundle of joy, of all the villagers who have warmly welcomed him.

Ezekiel realizes his world is nothing but war, but he still knows nothing of Tatiana’s.

“Come with me, love,” she says, wrapping her fingers around his as if he would be the one to break.

_ “Let me show you a world without war.” _

They leave the cozy yet now unbearable cottage behind. No armors, no uniform, no army, no title, no extravagant weapons save for a small knife he hides in his breast pocket for the sake of safety, because a second pair of shoes to replace the soon to be battered ones is all they really need.

(They do try to leave quietly, but Tatiana is this village’s treasure after all, and while Zeke  _ is  _ part of it now, the villagers tearfully wave goodbye.

How foolish. He already knows he is the luckiest man to have stumbled upon an emerald like Tatiana.)

All  _ he  _ needs is her hand tugging on his to guide him through a world that has not given him a place yet. He never lets go of her, for he is afraid of the ocean burying him back again with its angry waves. He is floating aimlessly between two lands and Tatiana is his life boat.

Tatiana knows the way, Zeke is sure of it, so he follows her with a fond smile on the dirt roads of Rigel.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear I'm going somewhere with this, stay with me. This is more of an introduction chapter and I'm getting to the actual roadtrip thing in the next chapter. I honestly don't know how long this is going to be, maybe three chapters? Who knows.
> 
> As always, I'd like to thank my friend green_piggy for supporting me and helping me with my English, go check out their stuff!
> 
> I hope this was enjoyable, comments and kudos are deeply appreciated!
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> [my twitter, where I cry about Tatiana a lot these days.](https://twitter.com/spelIdaggers)


End file.
